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Nation of Nations 3/e Davidson, Gienapp, Heyrman, Lytle, and Stoff | |||||
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Nation of Nations 3/e Davidson, Gienapp, Heyrman, Lytle, and Stoff | |||||
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The Civil War, as we have seen, grew out of major differences dividing the North and the South. Slavery was at the heart of these differences, yet the North went to war claiming that its sole purpose was to preserve the Union, and the Confederacy insisted that it was fighting for independence, not slavery. The ideals and arguments of both sides drew upon the American past. Supporters of the Union denied, as Jackson had denied in his proclamation on nullification, that there was any right of secession under the Constitution. As in the nullification crisis, supporters of the Union linked the survival of democracy with the Union's preservation, and they upheld the idea of America's mission going back to the Revolution and ultimately to the founding of the Puritan settlement of the Massachusetts Bay colony. Confederates argued, as had Calhoun in the nullification crisis, that a state had the right to secede under the Constitution. In establishing the Confederacy, Southerners declared that they were acting on the principle of self-government, as proclaimed by the Revolution's leaders in resisting tyranny in 1776. Both the North and the South sought to preserve the situation as it existed before the disruption of the Union. But the war would unleash forces that forced both sides to adopt new ideas and principles. In the process, the meaning of the Civil War was be fundamentally transformed.
The Civil War was the first total war in history, a war that depended on the mobilization of a society's human, economic, and intellectual resources. The chapter opens with the first major battle, at Bull Run, before which neither side had anticipated the magnitude of the struggle ahead. Jim Tinkham's lighthearted attitude when he enlisted was typical of troops in both armies. Randolph McKim's decision to join the Confederate army reflected the conflicting emotions many southern families felt, especially in the border states. The northern defeat at Bull Run forced members of Congress and other leaders to recognize that victory would not come easily. In the process of fighting the first total war, society changed drastically enough to term it a virtual revolution.
The Demands of Total War
The war's two political leaders were a study in contrasts. While well-meaning and not tied to the past, the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, was a less effective leader than the Union's Abraham Lincoln. Concerned about the border states, Lincoln insisted at the beginning of the conflict that the nation was waging a war to save the Union. He resisted demands to make emancipation a war aim. The Union gained a vital triumph when the border states cast their lot with the Union rather than the Confederacy. The war also created a new border state, West Virginia, when many of Virginia's western counties refused to support the Confederacy.
Opening Moves
The Union proclaimed a blockade of the southern coast, which became more effective every year. In addition, European powers refused to recognize the Confederacy or intervene militarily. The first Union successes occurred in the West, where Ulysses S. Grant invaded Tennessee and pushed down the Mississippi Valley. His drive south stalled after the fierce battle of Shiloh. In the East, the leading Union commander was George McClellan, whose army was much larger than his opponent but whose ingrained caution prevented him from using it aggressively. In Virginia, a stalemate quickly developed, as Robert E. Lee defeated a series of Union invasions, yet was defeated himself at Antietam when he invaded Maryland. In a year of hard fighting with heavy losses on both sides, the Union had made little headway in the East.
Emancipation
As the fighting dragged on, Lincoln came under mounting pressure to attack slavery as a way to win the war. Under pressure from the Radical Republicans, Congress passed a series of laws that undermined slavery, and the Union refused to return runaway slaves to their owners, insisting that they were contraband. Believing that slavery should be abolished by state action, Lincoln tried to get the border states to adopt a program of gradual emancipation, but his appeals were rejected. Finally, Lincoln decided to act against slavery. Following the battle of Antietam, he issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. He issued the final Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in all areas under Confederate control.
A large number of slaves, perhaps as many as half a million, eventually ran away to the Union lines and were freed. Many of these freedpeople were put to work at minimal wages on plantations in Union-controlled areas of the Mississippi Valley. Those who remained in the Confederacy seized greater personal freedom during the war, openly challenging white authority and refusing to work as hard as before. The Union also accepted African-Americans into the army and navy, and eventually over 200,000 served. Some were free black northerners, but the large majority were former slaves. As soldiers, African-Americans developed a new sense of pride and personal ability.
The Confederate Homefront
War brought increasing hardship and moral decay on the Confederate home front. With European exports severely cut by the blockade, the Confederacy attempted to build up its industry in order to become self-sufficient. With so many men mobilized into the army, it fell to women to run the farms and supply the necessary labor in factories. But inflation and food shortages became worse with each year.
In an effort to win the war, Davis and his advisers concentrated power in the government at Richmond, provoking strong protests from many southerners. The draft and impressment were especially denounced as interferences with states' rights and individual liberty. There were growing complaints that slaveholders were not carrying their share of the war's burdens. With tax revenues insufficient to finance the war, the Confederate population suffered from rampant inflation. Bread riots broke out in several cities, and the moral tone of society plummeted, as gambling, drinking, speculation, and crime overran the South.
The Union Home Front
Civilians in the Union suffered less. The North was prosperous and well fed during the war, and the inflation rate was much lower. Congress passed several laws to promote economic growth, including a protective tariff, a homestead act, the Land Grant College Act, and a national banking law. Fraud and corruption became rampant in the government, and workers saw their real wages decline. With the government spending unprecedented amounts of money, a cozy relationship developed between politicians and businesspeople eager for government contracts. A speculative fever pervaded society.
As in the South, women ran farms and took factory jobs to maintain war production. Before being allowed to work in military hospitals, they also had to battle army doctors. Nursing and teaching now quickly became female professions. Women also became a permanent part of the government bureaucracy in low level positions. Much of the volunteer work in the Union to provide relief and medical supplies was done by women.
Lincoln cracked down on antiwar activities by suspending the writ of habeas corpus, an action that was quite controversial. He also authorized military trials of civilians, an action the Supreme Court declared illegal after the war. The draft, which allowed the wealthy to hire a substitute or pay $300 for an exemption, was another grievance. Peace Democrats, labeled Copperheads by Republicans, vigorously protested the government's violations of personal liberty, and a major anti-draft riot erupted in New York City in 1863.
Gone to be a Soldier
Much like Jim Tinkham, soldiers in both armies soon discovered that war was much more tedious and far less glamorous than they had envisioned. Soldiers experienced great hardship from disease, poor food, and exposure, as well as risking life and limb in fighting. Traditional moral standards declined under the pressures of war. Accustomed to the freedom of the farm, southern soldiers did not adjust as easily to military discipline, and southern individualism eventually weakened the army, especially as the Union war effort became increasing organized.
The mounting casualty lists bore down with special force on the common soldiers. New technology, particularly the rifled musket and artillery piece, made the defense considerably stronger than the offense. War was more deadly than ever before, yet despite heavy losses most battles were indecisive.
The Union's Triumph
The war's turning point came in 1863 when the Union won twin victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Gettysburg destroyed Lee's offensive capabilities, while Grant's victories in the west that year led Lincoln to appoint him commanding general. With the Mississippi in Union hands, Grant instructed William Tecumseh Sherman to drive a diagonal wedge through the Confederacy from Tennessee through Georgia, while Grant himself fought a series of fierce battles with Lee in Virginia. Grant was unable to break Lee's lines, however, and with Sherman bogged down in front of Atlanta, Lincoln seemed headed for certain defeat in the 1864 presidential election. Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September was the military breakthrough Lincoln needed, and he swept to victory. Lincoln's re-election made it clear that the Union would continue the war until reunion and emancipation were achieved. Following the election, Congress approved the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery; it was ratified in December 1865. With the Confederacy's hopes flickering, Jefferson Davis offered to abolish slavery in a desperate and unsuccessful bid for British recognition. In the meantime, Sherman embarked on his destructive march through Georgia and then the Carolinas. Civilian morale collapsed in the Confederacy and the southern armies were wracked by desertions. In April, Grant forced Lee to evacuate Richmond, and he surrendered a few days later at Appomattox Court House. The rest of the Confederate armies soon did the same. In the hour of the Union's victory, Lincoln was assassinated, the final tragedy in the conflict.
The Impact of War
The war profoundly changed the nation, altering its political institutions, its economy, and its values. Secession was dead, and power was concentrated in the federal government at the expense of the states. Slavery had been abolished, the South's wealth destroyed. Industry was stimulated and, with the probusiness Republican party dominant, the government now played a much more active role in the economy. But the war had a high spiritual cost: sectional bitterness, a greater tolerance of corruption, moral complacency, and a loss of the crusading idealism that had characterized the nation before the war.
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